Using 3 years of school grading data supplied by the Colorado Department of Education and R-Squared Research, visually uncover trends in the Colorado public school system.

About Us

Colorado School Grades was created by a coalition of non-profit, community organizations that believe all children deserve access to a high-performing school. Our mission is to provide community members, parents, students, and educators with school performance
information that is both accessible and easy-to-understand. Our hope is that this will help families and students make more informed decisions about the school they choose based in some part on academic performance information. We also aim to inspire and equip
community members, parents, students, and educators with the information and resources they need to effectively engage in local school improvement efforts. We provide resources for community stakeholders to improve their chosen schools.

Colorado School Grades receives over 300,000 parents annually. Please use the site as a reference for any additional questions that you may have. And please be sure to include the Colorado School Grades link and logo in your visualization.

Competition is organized and administered by Ryan Wilson at FiveFifty.

Data Visualization Interests

We believe that information is power and our work translates the state of Colorado’s school performance labels into easier-to-understand letter grades. We make these grades public on an intuitive, user-friendly platform at
www.ColoradoSchoolGrades.com. Now that we have three years of letter grades for the schools, we are interested in seeing what trends and insights visualisation experts can identify and explain in compelling
data visualizations. Here is a list of some the questions we find intriguing:

How have grades changed over time across the state (or perhaps more importantly how have they remained the same)?

Where are the A schools primarily located? Our vision is that all kids have access to a high-performing school – how does the Colorado deliver against that promise of equity?

Are there correlations between A schools and student demographics (free/reduced lunch is a proxy for poverty or by race) – Do poor and minority kids have access to A schools?

Academic growth is an indicator used in the grading system. It is described in more detail in the data description page and on the Colorado School Grades website, but is perhaps the greatest indicator of how much teaching and learning is actually occurring
in the school. That said, where are the schools that have the best sub-grades for student growth? Are there particular schools that have high percentages of low income students AND high grades for student growth. Some may say those schools are doing more to
close Colorado’s achievement gap between the wealthy and the poor than any other.

What percentage of Colorado’s student’s are ready for college and career by school or by school district?

Which districts have the most A schools, F schools, or improving schools?

Which schools have improved their letter grades the most?

How do these grades, graduation rates, and college/career readiness metrics compare to labor market and economic data / needs?

What have we missed? Please use your creativity to identify interesting trends or insights that the data tells us.